Cheap Patterns at Joann

Sorry I've been so long without posting. I guess I've had blogger's block or something, but I just had to let y'all know about this deal in case anyone was interested.
We're visiting Mom and Dad McHacker in Meridian this weekend and I decided I wanted to check out the new Joann Fabric that opened up last month. So I got online to check the sale ad and saw on page 14 of this week's ad that Butterick patterns are on sale for $1.99 each through the 24th, with a limit of 10. This is a GREAT deal. I've been wanting some more apron patterns and some bag patterns, and this was the perfect opportunity to get them. I picked up 8 patterns for less than what one would have cost at regular price. Regular price before tax $128.15, sale price before tax $15.92! The deal is in-store only, which kinda stinks, but if you have a Joann's near you, it would be worth going.
These are the patterns I got:
1950's Vintage Apron B4087

Apron pattern B4945

Waverly Apron pattern B5263

Apron pattern B5302

1954 Retro Apron pattern B5435

Vintage Apron pattern B6567

Handbag pattern B4822
Waverly Totes B5267

Pink stuff FAIL

"Pink Stuff" is what we call strawberry congealed salad in our family. I hate the word congealed. Anyway...
Here's a recipe for it:
Small container of Cool Whip
Small container of small curd cottage cheese
Box of strawberry Jell-o (don't make the Jell-o, just dump the powder in)
Can of fruit cocktail, drained

Mix the Jell-o powder into the cottage cheese, add the fruit cocktail, and fold in the Cool Whip. You can add nuts if you like. Sometimes I make it with orange Jell-o and mandarin oranges. You can pretty much come up with your own combination of whatever flavor Jell-o and fruit you like. Easy-peasy.
Except, somehow I messed it up. This is the email I sent to my mom-in-law last night, I thought you all might enjoy it.

Hey Mom and Dad,
I just had to share this with you cause I know you will get a kick out of it. Last night I made some "pink stuff" and it still wasn't firm by tonight. I've made it dozens of times and never had this happen. I think there was too much liquid in the cottage cheese and even though I drained the fruit cocktail, I think it had too much liquid as well. So we decided to make smoothies out of it. The texture is a little funny, but overall, not too bad. So jello salad fail = smoothies win. :-) Oh, and it's such a pretty color of pink. Love y'all lots, Crystal

To make the smoothies, I just threw a bunch of ice cubes, a little milk, and about half of the failed mixture into the blender and used the ice crush setting. I think I'm going to throw a banana in with it when I mix up the rest of it. I guess this is just one more example of how I hate to waste anything!

Cork board cake

This cake is for a faculty meeting for the computer science department at MSU. Mr. McHacker helped me come up with the idea of making it look like a cork board with calendar pages tacked onto it. I think it's pretty cute. Hopefully they'll like it.


I'm heading down to Lucedale tomorrow to do a wedding cake, cupcakes, and cookies for this weekend. I'm gonna be so busy, I'm not really looking forward to all of the work since my back has been bothering me a lot, but i promised to do it, so I am. I'll post pictures of everything next week.

Windmills

I saw this segment on Good Morning America last week and I just can't get it out of my head. They had an interview with a young African man named William Kamkwamba, who built a windmill to produce electricity for his family's home. At the time he was 14 or 15 years old and couldn't go to school because his family couldn't afford the $80 a year tuition. So he went to the nearest library and borrowed books about physics and generating electricity and taught himself. He built a windmill out of junk parts he could find lying around. It just amazed me that this boy who had nothing, had so much initiative that he would do whatever it took to make his family's life better. It's such an amazing and heartwarming story.

On this page at Good Morning America's website, there is a link to the video of the interview, I think it's the 4th link listed. There is a feature length documentary about William, called Moving Windmills, in production now. You can watch an excerpt of it here. I hope you will take the time to watch the videos, they're about 5 or 6 minutes each.

He also wrote a book, with co-author Brian Mealer, called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

I'm not trying to sell anything, and no one asked me to write this. I just saw this young man's story and it touched my heart so much that I had to share it with y'all. We always hear about so many bad things happening around the world that I thought we all could benefit from an inspiring story such as this. I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Shopping trip 9-26

I haven't made a couponing/ deals post in a while, so I thought I would post what I bought today. It wasn't the most money I've ever saved on a trip, but I got a few good deals. I went to CVS and Walgreens, but just took one picture of everything.

CVS
1st Transaction:
2 small boxes Nutter Butter cookies
1 small box Ritz crackers
1 small box Oreos
$1 each, used 2 $1 off 2 Nabisco coupons
2 Right Guard deodorants $2.99 each, used $1 off 2 coupon, got $2 ECBs
Gillette Fusion cartridges $14.99, use a coupon for free shave gel ($4.29) got $3 ECBs
Used a $4 ECB and $17.07 on a CVS money card
Total out of pocket $2.95

2nd Transaction:
10 oz Glade soy candle, used a rain-check from several weeks ago making it $6.99, got $6.99 ECBs back. Used the $5 worth of ECBs from the first transaction.
Total out of pocket $2.48

Walgreens
2 Glade scented oil candles with holders, 2/$5, used a $2 off 2 coupon, got $1 Registar Reward
Electrosol gelpacs $3.99, used $.50 coupon, got $1 RR
2 Aussie shampoos $2.99 each, used a $2 off 2 coupon, got $2 RR
2 small boxes of Cheez It $1.99 Buy one get one free
Total out of pocket $13.65
Not the greatest deal, but I did save $10.51 from sales and coupons, and got back $4 in RR that I can use on a future purchase.

I hope y'all are having a good weekend. Remember to get a paper tomorrow for the coupons, I know I will!

Another birthday cake

This cake was for the principal at the school where I used to work. I've made him a birthday cake and Boss's Day cake for the past 3 or 4 years, so I'm starting to run out of ideas! After I took this picture, I fixed the little bit at the bottom that was crooked, but forgot to take another picture of the cake. Oh well!

Wow Wow Wubbzy cake

Wow wow Wubbzy is another one of those Noggin shows I think. A friend ordered it for her friend's little girl. I have another one of these to do next week, it'll probably end up looking exactly the same way!

Sunflower cookies

I made these a couple of weeks ago. The sunflower cookie bouquet was ordered for someone at the school where I used to work. The little bouquet was just a happy I made for an acquaintance's birthday.

Petit Fours and marzipan

Once again, sorry for my lack of posting. I finally got around to downloading pictures off my camera, so I wanted to share a couple of things with you.

Several weeks ago, ok, more like 2 months ago, I made some petit fours for my friend's mom to take to a baby shower. I've finally recovered from the ordeal and can talk about them without hatred now. (What a pain!) The ladies at Bakerella and VeganYumYum have written lovely, detailed posts about the process of making petit fours, so I won't go into detail, since I pretty much did exactly as they did. Mine were filled with buttercream rather than jam, though.

Since I didn't have anywhere to get marzipan, I blanched, peeled and ground some almonds and made my own almond paste using the first recipe on this page, minus the rosewater. Then I kneaded in powdered sugar to make it into marzipan. I have to admit, I thought that part was kind of fun. I didn't realize just how much it would make though, obviously, since I ended up with almost 4 pounds of it!
Thankfully, it freezes well, so I used what I needed and stuck the rest in the freezer. I'm going to dip some of it in chocolate and make candy for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll let you know how that turns out.

So anyway, here's a picture of the finished petit fours.

I hope y'all have a great day!

Umm...I'm still alive

I haven't made a blog post in over a month. Sorry 'bout that. I don't have any good excuse really. I keep thinking that I should start blogging again, but then just don't do it. I rarely have anything blog-worthy to write about, but I figured I just have to jump back in somehow. So here I am.

Today I cut out and organized coupons while I watched a bunch of episodes of Firefly. I really love that show. It makes me sad that it didn't do better when it was on the air, cause I wish there could be new episodes of it. I've owned Serenity for a couple of years, but just can't bring myself to watch it, because then the story would be over for me and I want it to last as long as possible. That's why I decided to rewatch Firefly. Maybe I'll finally watch Serenity after I finish Firefly this time.

Also, I've been a tiny bit obsessed with watching Mad Men. We just started watching it again, so we're still a few episodes behind, but we should be caught up soon. I just love the clothes of that era. Part of me is tempted to start making my own dresses in the styles I see on the show. I can just imagine the sorts of crazy looks I would get from people. Who care what people think anyway, right?

In other news, we had sloppy joes for supper tonight and with that, I will leave you with this video. Take a trip down memory lane, back to the mid nineties with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley.

Free coffee sample

Heather at Freebies4Mom posted this link, and I thought I would pass it on. Y'all know I'm all about the freebies! Hopefully this will make your Monday a little bit better :-)

Just one more reason why I love my husband

He makes up silly charts like this and sends them to me, just to brighten my day. "The Masaokis Boundary" is apparently where "sausages" go wrong, and is in reference to a guy who makes "cooking videos" and puts them on Youtube. Check out Masaokis's Super Sausages video - if you dare. It's long and he's crazy, and it will leave you saying "what the heck was that?"

Happy Anniversary

Five years ago I married my best friend. He's the best thing that ever happened to me and I love him with all my heart. If there ever were two people who were meant to be together, it has to be us!

Tinkerbell cake

Sorry for the craptastic picture, I took it with the iPhone. I did
take better ones with the camera, but I'm tired and don't want to take
the time to download them from the camera then upload them to the
interwebs. So, goodnight.

Spiderman cake

This is the cake I just finished for my friend's little boy, he's
turning five tomorrow. I promise there aren't spacing issues, he has a
double first name and you can only see part of it in the picture. I
hate to see cakes where the writing is off center.
Next up is a Tinkerbell cake for the same friend's daughter. She's
turning twelve next week, so they're having one party instead of two.
Let's hope I don't mess up the writing on it or I'll be eating my
words. I'll post a pic of it when I get done.

A purse for my niece

Several months ago when I asked my niece what she wanted for her birthday, one of the things she said she wanted was for me to make her a purse. She said she wanted pink and green and really bright colors. So, last weekend in between 4th of July stuff, I made my niece a purse as part of her birthday present. She seemed to really like it, and her mom liked it because she can throw it in the washing machine when it gets dirty. The pattern has a large version and a small version, this is the small one (perfect for a ten year old girl I think). I'm planning on making some with the larger pattern for myself and a few for Christmas gifts. Last year it was aprons, this year will be purses :-)

Menu plan 6/29 - 7/5

Breakfasts this week will just be whatever we feel like eating. The choices are cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, grits, and possibly muffins if I feel like making some.

Monday 6/29
Lunch - Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage and cornbread

Tuesday 6/30
Lunch - Leftover red beans and rice
Supper - Chicken Spaghetti, homemade rolls

Wednesday 7/1
Lunch - Leftover chicken spaghetti
Supper - Lasagna, salad, rolls

Thursday 7/2
Lunch - BLT sandwiches
Supper - Leftovers from the week

Friday 7/3
Lunch - Leftovers or tomato sandwiches
Supper - Manwich sandwiches and french fries

Saturday 7/4
Lunch and Supper - cookout at the family reunion

Sunday 7/5
Lunch - family reunion
Supper - Southwest quiche (from freezer)

I give up

I've been trying to clean out our computer/junkroom this week. It's
not going so great. A few minutes ago I knocked over one of my
favorite pieces of junk, an old cast iron and glass gumball machine.
Oh, and somehow I managed to cut myself on the leg in the process. I
couldn't face cleaning it up right away so I sat down to compose
myself and this post. Just shoot me.

Menu plan 6/22 - 6/28

It's my birthday today, so if we end up eating out somewhere tonight, I'll just push everything back a day.



Monday 6/22
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Leftover red beans and rice
Supper - Ham and cheddar quiche

Tuesday 6/23
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Leftover quiche
Supper - Chicken Club Ring

Wednesday 6/24
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Leftover chicken club ring
Supper - Pork tenderloin, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese

Thursday 6/25
Breakfast - Cereal or oatmeal
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Pork fried rice

Friday 6/26
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Cheeseburgers and french fries

Saturday 6/27
Breakfast - Cereal or oatmeal
Lunch - Homemade pepperoni pizza
Supper - Breakfast for supper (Affectionately known around here as "brupper")

Sunday 6/28
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Fettucine alfredo (the Knorr side dish kind) with chicken added
Supper - Baked chicken breast with lemon pepper, squash casserole, pasta salad

Cheap By Choice

Cheap by Choice is a fellow couponing, deal-seaking blogger, and she's having a coupon giveaway. Whether you're an avid couponer, or just getting started, you should check it out. Go here for more info. Good luck!

Gift baskets

I came across this post from Coupon Mommie today and it reminded me of the gift baskets I made for Mother's Day and forgot to tell you about.
Knowing that our mothers and my Nana have just about everything they need, it's sometimes hard to figure out what to buy them for occasions such as Mother's Day, so this year I made them gift baskets from my stockpile. I know for instance that my Nana likes to use Dove products, so when CVS has deals on Dove, I stock up. I've forgotten exactly what I put into each of them, but it's stuff like shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, body wash, lotion, soap, razors, and deodorant. Gifts like these always seem to be appreciated and I think many people like getting gifts that are useful.
The Dollar Tree has a pretty good selection of baskets and plastic containers, and shredded paper to use as filler, as well as gift basket wrapping kits, which contain one clear plastic bag and a "pull bow" for a dollar each.
So, if you've started couponing and don't know what to do with all of the stuff in your stockpile, try making some gift baskets!

Menu Plan Monday...just a little late

Better late than never, right? I actually had the menu plan mostly done last night, but forgot about posting it till now. I really got into planning the menu this week and decided to just go ahead and plan meals for the next month. That's right, I have a month's worth of meals planned. After I get this posted I'm gonna go ahead and type up the next few week's menus so I won't be late getting it done again.

Meals for the week of Monday, June 15 - Sunday, June 21

Monday 6/15
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Chinese buffet
Supper - Mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, baby lima beans

Tuesday 6/16
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Hot Pockets
Supper - Fried chicken tenders, salad

Wednesday 6/17
Breakfast - Granola bars
Lunch - Salad topped with chicken tenders
Supper - Barbecued pineapple pork chops, green beans

Thursday 6/18
Breakfast - Blueberry muffins
Lunch - Hot dogs and potato chips
Supper - Cheeseburgers on homemade buns, french fries

Friday 6/19
Breakfast - Blueberry muffins
Lunch - Hot Pockets (yes twice in one week - they were on sale at Kroger)
Supper - Chicken Spaghetti, homemade rolls

Saturday 6/20
Breakfast - Grits and toast or muffins if there are any left
Lunch - leftover chicken spaghetti
Supper - Cooking out with some friends at their house

Sunday 6/21
Brunch (we sleep late on Sundays)- Cinnamon rolls
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage, cornbread

I'm also going to try my hand at making a pineapple upside down cake to have for dessert for the rest of the week.

Gettin' better

I'm getting better at this couponing thing. I just thought I would share last week's CVS trips with y'all.

Transaction 1
1 Bayer Contour meter on sale for $14.99, regular price $79.99 had a coupon making it free. (Gonna give it away).
2 Dawn dish soaps 2/$2, used a $.50 coupon and a $.25 coupon.
Earned $6.00 Extra Care Bucks (ECBs)
Used $2 ECBs
Total out of pocket (OOP) $1. 05 in taxes
Saved $83.97


Transaction 2
1 Gillette Fusion razor sale $7.99, regular $9.99, used a $4.00 coupon
1 King sized Hershey's candy bar $1.00, used "free coupon" up to $.85
1 Hershey's Bliss sale $3.50, use $1.00 coupon
3 Reese's Select Clusters $3.50 each, used 3 $1.00 coupons
Earned $9.00 ECBs
Used $11 ECBs
OOP $3.98
Saved 27.60


Transaction 3
Dove body wash, sale $7.00, regular $8.69, used $1.25 coupon
Dove shampoo , sale $4.00, regular $4.99, used $1.00 coupon
Dove conditioner, sale $4.00, regular $4.99, used $1.00 coupon
Dove deodorant,sale 2/$5.00, regular $3.49 each, used $1.50 coupon
Earned $10.00 ECBs for buying Dove
Used $10.00 ECBs
OOP $5.95
Saved 20.40

Transaction 4
Febreze Noticeables, sale $7.00, regular $8.49, used $1.00 coupon
Febreze Air Effects, sale $2.00, regular $3.29, used $.50 coupon
M&M's King size, sale $1.00, regular $1.59
M&M's regular size, sale $.67, regular $.89
Used $10.00 ECBs
Earned $5.00 ECBs
OOP $.29
Saved $14.09


Transaction 5
4 - 12 pack Coke products, regular $4.79, sale $3.25 each
Earned $3.00 ECBs for buying 4
Used $5.00 ECBs
OOP $8.56
Saved $11.16

Total OOP for all CVS transactions - $19.83
Total saved for all CVS transactions -$146.06
(I think all my math was right!)

*Edit*
Shelby asked why I did so many transactions, so I thought I would explain that. It's to "roll" the Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). ECBs are "$ off your next purchase" coupons that CVS gives you for purchasing certain items, and ideally, you want to use them to purchase items that give you more ECBs. I started out with $14 ECBs that I already had from last week's transactions. On transaction 1, I used $2 ECBs but earned $6 more, so that put me up to $18 ECBs. Transaction 2 I used $11, but earned $9 more, so tht put me at $16ECBs, and so on. When you break up your transactions, it gives you more chances to use the ECBs you have to earn more, which results in getting a huge discount by using the ECBs. I don't know if that made it any clearer, but you can email me if any of you have questions. I'm no expert though.
If you're interested in couponing, check out Hot Coupon World. You have to join the site, but it's free and SOOOO worth it. Once you join, click the Forums tab at the top, scroll down to Swingin' Deals and click Drug Stores, then click on the CVS subforum. There is tons of information about how to get good deals at CVS there. There are forums for just about every grocery and drug store out there, and they're always updated with the current deals. I've found it really helpful to see how others "coupon", Yeah, I'm so adjective, I verb nouns.

toothpastefordinner.com

Peanut butter pie

I just made this:

and it was as easy as the Pioneer Woman said it would be. Oh and her pictures are a little better, so go take a look.

Around here we really like chocolate and peanut butter. Actually I'm pretty sure I've posted a couple of other peanut butter and chocolate related recipes.
Mr. McHacker has been gone a lot lately and I wanted to make something yummy for him to come home to tomorrow. I think he'll enjoy it, I know I will.
I hope y'all have a happy Friday and a great weekend.

funny stuff

Yeah I've been neglecting the blog a lot lately. I have some things I keep meaning to post and just haven't. Maybe I'll get around to it someday.
But anyway, This post is to tell you about a funny blog I've been reading for a couple of months. It's called List of the Day, and it's frakkin' hilarious. If you're sensitive to foul language or vulgarity, don't click it. If you're sick and twisted like me and so many others, click and enjoy. I was reading this one today and literally laughed out loud like 18 times it was so funny. Just wanted to share the funny with any of you who wanted it. Hope you're having a great week.

Monday again

I hope everybody had a good Mother's day yesterday. We spent the day with Mom and Dad McHacker and had a great time, and ate way too much pizza at Cici's. We're hopefully going to see my Mom next weekend.

One of the things I really like about posting a menu plan, is that Mr. McHacker can see what's for dinner at any time he wants, even when he's at work.

Breakfasts will be cereal, oatmeal, or grits. There's also a can of cinnamon rolls in the fridge that I might fix at some point this week.

Monday
Lunch - Turkey sandwiches
Supper - Round steaks, mashed potatoes, English peas

Tuesday
Lunch -Sandwiches
Supper - Baked chicken breasts, Pasta Roni, green bean casserole

Wednesday
Lunch - Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage, cornbread

Thursday
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Fried chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese

Friday
Lunch - Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper - Spaghetti casserole (didn't make it last week)

Saturday
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Pork tenderloin, broccoli and cheese sauce, pasta salad

Sunday
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Chicken/rice/broccoli/cheese casserole (didn't make it last week)

Menu Plan 5/4 - 5/10

It's Monday again!

Breakfast will be a choice of granola bars, cereal, oatmeal, or grits.

Monday
Lunch: Grilled Cheese sandwiches
Supper: Hamburger Helper and homemade rolls

Tuesday
Lunch: Chinese buffet at Taste of China (yay!)
Supper: Chicken Fajita salad (I didn't make it last week)

Wednesday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Chicken Club "hot pockets" and fries

Thursday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Baked Spaghetti, homemade rolls

Friday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Chicken, rice, broccoli and cheese casserole, homemade rolls

Saturday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Red beans and rice with sausage, cornbread

Sunday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Baked chicken breasts, Pasta Roni, green beans

A Soft Place to Land Giveaway

Kimba at A Soft Place to Land, is having a great giveaway. It's for $50 to spend at Dayspring.com. Their new Life to the Full collection is really beautiful. Go enter the giveaway: http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/05/dayspring-life-collection-giveaway.html
And she also has a 20% off coupon code if you can't wait to see if you win the giveaway and want to order something now!
Good luck!

We're at the Mississippi State graduation ceremony. Our good friend
Liz is graduating today. Yay Liz!

If you're thinking it looks like there aren't many graduates, it's
because they have two ceremonies. Otherwise all of the family and
friends wouldn't fit. Congrats to all the grads!

Test post

Just trying to figure out this mobile blogging thing. I hope it works.

Menu Plan Monday

(I accidentally hit post, so if you got a blank menu, sorry.)

I haven't been blogging lately and I'm not sure why. I've still been reading all of the ones I follow, and commenting occasionally, but just haven't had the motivation to write anything of my own. I've done some fun stuff in the past month or so, so I'm going to try to post some things that I should have posted about when they happened - better late than never I guess.
Mr. McHacker reinstalled Windows onto my laptop, and I'm not loving it. It's not his fault though, I asked him to do it. But after running Ubuntu Linux for the past year or so and returning to Windows, I am reminded of why I left it in the first place...oh well. I told you that to tell you this, several things I want to write about have accompanying photos and all of my pictures and stuff are still on the DVD backups that I haven't gotten around to putting back onto the laptop. And by "haven't gotten around to," I mean really mean, "have been too lazy to do." So, I'll work on that and try to get caught up.
Since it's Monday (for a few more minutes anyway) I thought I would do a Menu Plan Monday post to try to get myself back in the habit.

Monday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Ham or turkey sandwiches
Supper: Chicken fried rice

Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover chicken fried rice
Supper: Chicken Caesar salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper: Lasagna, homemade bread sticks

Thursday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover lasagna
Supper: Baked pork chops, Pasta Roni, green beans, breadsticks

Friday
Breakfast: Grits and toast
Lunch: Chef Boyarde ravioli
Supper: Fried chicken tenders, french fries, some kind of canned or frozen veggie

Saturday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftovers or pb&j sandwiches
Supper: Cheeseburgers on homemade buns, french fries (yes I know we're have fries two nights in a row - don't judge)

Sunday
Brunch: Scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, toast
Supper: Chicken fajita salad

I'm also making these things for desserts:
Strawberry shortcake (homemade pound cake, more about that later)
Pound cake with blueberry sauce
Brownies
Peach cobbler

I hope everyone's week is off to a good start.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I needed a break from blogging, so I took one. Now I'm back.

We're going to a friend's for dinner tonight and these are the cupcakes I baked to take along. The recipe came from a Taste of Home bake sale magazine. Actually, the cupcake part of it is from one recipe and the frosting is from another, but they work really well together. I've made them before and they are really good. If you like peanut butter and chocolate (who doesn't?), give them a try.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar ( I use light brown)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
12 miniature peanut butter cups

In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla (scrape down sides of bowl). Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fill paper lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup batter. Press a peanut butter cup into the center of each one until the top is even with the batter but not covering. Bake at 350 for about 22 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes then remove to wire pan to cool completely. (The recipe says 16, but I find it makes 12 nice, big cupcakes.)

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 3/4 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups confectioner's sugar
4 to 6 tablespoons milk

In a mixing bowl. cream the butter and peanut butter. Add the vanilla, confectioner's sugar, and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. (I piped the frosting on with a decorating tip rather than spreading it.)


Yes those are Winnie the pooh cupcake papers, and yes, only adults will be eating them. And after we finish off the cupcakes, we'll be eating the rest of these:

Dr. Seuss cakes

Here are the Dr. Seuss birthday cake pictures. There were five cakes in all. One just says happy birthday, and the others are covers of Dr. Seuss books. I'm posting the pictures of the book covers along with the pictures of the cakes so you can see what I was working with. Some are better than others. I think it's pretty obvious that the fish cake and the happy birthday one were the last ones, they're not as good as the others. Every time I look at them, they scream "it's midnight and I'm tired!"

I took the cakes to the school early Friday and stayed the rest of the day to help out. The party was fun, I think all of the kids (and teachers) enjoyed it. The kids singing "I do not like green eggs and ham" from Seussical the Musical was so cute!